This invention relates to a hinge-wing drawbar mechanism.
In the agricultural industry, as the size of farms has increased and the concomitant need for more efficient farming techniques has developed, farm implements have increased in size. For example, the size of harrows has grown in recent years to such an extent that now the outer sections of the harrows are hinged to the central sections thereof so that the outer sections can be folded for transportion from place to place. For example, a 112 foot harrow has a center section which is only 14 feet. The center section is limited to 14 feet because this is the maximum transport width for harrows. This means that each external wing section of the harrow would be 49 feet wide. Such long sections have presented problems. For example, farmers have found that a solid wing section of 28 feet is too long, let alone one that is 49 feet, when harrowing a field that has some degree of grade.
For this reason, harrows have been developed by the assignee of the present invention with a hinge point on each wing section of the harrow drawbars so that the outer hinged portions of the harrow can tilt vertically with respect to the inner portion of the harrow drawbar. In this structure a support wheel is positioned behind the drawbar for providing support proximate the hinged section of the drawbar. With this design a number of harrow teeth had to be sacrificed in order to provide clearance for the wheel in this the region of the hinged junction of the drawbars. Also, because of the wheel, the drawbar could not be rotated on the move to dump "trash" because the hinge point would rotate and dig into the dirt. It accordingly has become apparent that an improved hinge-wing drawbar assembly is necessary in order to provide a more efficient and improved harrow. Moreover, such an improved drawbar assembly can be used for other agricultural applications such as pulling sprayers, packers and other implements.
It accordingly is an object of this invention to provide an improved hinge-wing drawbar assembly for agricultural implements.